Cutting Sleep Back, How and When?

Updated on April 14, 2010
C.T. asks from Winder, GA
6 answers

I have a 20 mon old who sleeps through the night great. Aside from when she is getting molars, but thats another story. She generally sleeps 8 pm to 8 am and takes a good three hour nap from 1-4. She has been on this schedule for quit a long time with an occasional hiccup here and there. She goes to sleep great, we might hear her playing for 15 minutes or so but is able to put herself to sleep. She wakes up happy and plays and sings until we get her. For both naps and nighttime she is great. However, this last week she has been laying in bed for up to two hours before she falls asleep. Just at bedtime, not nap. She sings, plays, talks, etc. but no screaming or crying. She has also woken up early a few days this week, about and hour or less. She goes down for her nap just fine but has been waking up about a half hour early. But all things considered she is acting normal and the lack in sleep doesn't seem to be bothering her. Her mood is fine, aside from the eye teeth that are coming in... It is hard to tell if the crankiness is the teething or the few hours less in sleep. You would think she would sleep until 8 am after staying up late or sleep her entire nap but that doesn't seem to be the case.
So my husband and I are sitting here wondering if it is time to cut down her nap by an hour or let her stay up until 9 pm., or is it even time to think about it? I have to say that I am not looking forward to the day when nap time disappears. 15 hrs does seem like a lot of sleep. When is an appropriate time to cut back nap time? If you do think her sleep hours should be cut back should it be from her nap time or at bedtime? When do these transitions occur, is 20 mon to soon to be thinking about cutting out some sleep hours? This has only been going on a week, should we wait it out? Could it be the teething... aside from being cranky, and not eating, could it be disrupting her sleep habits as well?
Thank You

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A.G.

answers from Pocatello on

First don't move her sleep time later. 8pm is prefect. plus I know this sounds backwards but for most kids if you put them down later to bed they start waking up earlier in the morning and I doubt you want that. If I were you I would just cut back on the nap. Only try letting her nap for an hour 1/2 to 2 hours. Then she will probably be ready to go to bed at 8. It is normal for kids to go through little funks in their sleeping patterns so give this a try and see what happens.

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D.D.

answers from Denver on

I agree with Andrea. Keep the bedtime at 8. Start shortening her naps a little bit at a time, say 15 minutes a day for a week, then 15 minutes more... until she is down to about 1.5 to 2 hours. I think that will help.

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J.C.

answers from Columbus on

Our daughter is also a great sleeper. She is now 35 months and usually sleeps ten hours at night and usually a two hour nap in the afternoon. She used to sleep as much as your daughter when she was that age. However, she has gone through periods of less sleep. Sometimes we have found that the later we put her down, the earlier she gets up. I have read that that happens because they don't enter a deep enough sleep and thus are more likely to wake up during their lighter sleep cycle. Anyway, when our daughter was going through the phase of not going to sleep right away, we made sure that she got a lot of exercise in the evening and continued to put her down at her regular bed time and that seemed to help. I am a firm believer in not waking a sleeping child unless absolutely necessary! I am sure she will work this out herself. Her teeth may very well be bothering her sleep habits! Most of the reading also says that children need naps until they are about 5 years old. However, each child is different!

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D.S.

answers from Tulsa on

i vote the 9 pm bedtime, then 10 pm when her next cycle does this and then slowly wean the naps away. good luck

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K.E.

answers from Myrtle Beach on

The same thing happened with my son a couple of months ago and he is now 25 months. We shortened his nap and he nows goes to sleep at 8 again. Dont change her bedtime at night because it is true that the later you put them to bed the earlier they tend to wake up. It has something to do with thte interruption of their deep sleep. Hope this helps, and don't forget hiccups WILL happen.

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C.S.

answers from Atlanta on

Hi! My son (35 months) had nearly same sleeping schedule as your daughter up until about three months ago. (He would sleep until between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. in the morning.) When he began to play after being put to bed, I never changed a thing, and he eventually returned to his normal nap and bed times, he just wakes up a bit earlier in the morning. I think it had been due to a growth spurt, or something, since he had one during that time. He now goes to bed at 8:00 p.m. wakes at around 7:45 a.m. and naps from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00p.m. Maybe this will work itself out for you like it did for us. I live in GA, too, and there is a nasty combination of allergies and sinus infections that seems to be effecting all of the kiddos that I know; it might have something to do with that and/or the fact that it is still light at 8:00 p.m., both of which effected my son's eating/sleeping habits for a bit. I would give it a little longer than a week to see if it corrects itself, and if it hasn't by two weeks, I would adjust her nap. I wouldn't change her bed time, though, for the same reasons Kari E. and others gave.

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